Sports Tips & Advice

Weight-room workouts for cyclists: Part two

By Eric Cressey, MA, CSCS | For Active.com

As we learned in part one, cyclists can gain an advantage by training off the bike. The corrective exercises presented here work toward increasing performance strength, allowing you to deter injuries and stay in the saddle longer.

Face pulls

Integrating face pulls into your workout routine help to ensure upper body health and efficiency. As part of the rounded upper-back posture cyclists endure, the scapulae (shoulder blades) have a tendency to slide up and out -- a position referred to as abduction, or winging.

Face pulls simultaneously train scapular depression and retraction, strengthening the muscles that pull the shoulder blades down and back.

Popular Activities Near You

Ashburn, VA

Set up a pulley with the rope attachment just above forehead-level. Standing with a split stance, hold the pulley with an overhand grip. Your arms should be out in front of you and just above shoulder height. [photo left]

Next, pull the center of the rope attachment toward your face by retracting the shoulder blades and forcing the elbows out (not down). As the rope approaches your face, your shoulder blades should be pulled back and down, with the chest high. You should feel the resistance in your mid-back. [photo right]

For variety and an increased emphasis on external rotation, start the exercise with your thumbs facing you. You'll find that you can get your hands further back with this set-up, and you'll feel it a bit more in the back of your shoulders. [photo left]

Though it appears to be a simple exercise, the face pull has yielded tremendous results in the cyclists I've trained. Very few exercises outperform the face pull in terms of directly addressing the postural deficits common in cycling. Stick with higher reps; sets of eight to 12 are best.

Single-leg exercises

In my experience, the two most uncoordinated types of athletes when out of their element are swimmers and cyclists. What do these two sports have in common? Both are non-weight-bearing.

More specifically, neither of these sports requires weight-bearing in a single-leg stance -- something that characterizes almost every other athletic endeavor, not to mention regular activity associated with daily living.

Frontal plane stability is required to generate the optimal force necessary for single leg exercises. Cycling takes place in the sagittal (front-to-back) plane. Standing on one foot, you're stabilizing, not moving, in the frontal (side-to-side) plane. The lunge relies predominantly on the ability of the adductors (inner thigh muscles) and abductors (outer thigh/butt muscles) to contract together, stabilizing your thigh so you don't tip over.

Single-leg strength is applicable to both performance and health. I've noticed a significant relationship between knee pain and an inability to execute single-leg exercises.

A correct lunge trains the thigh muscles to properly balance each other out. This helps to improve cycling efficiency and prevent pain in areas such as the lateral knee, anterior hip and lower back. The recruitment of the quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes is an added bonus.

Single-leg exercises also help strengthen the muscles of the lower leg and feet -- especially if you do them barefoot. Using sneakers all the time tends to allow the smaller foot muscles to shut down. Cyclists I've worked with have used movements from our Magnificent Mobility DVD to successfully correct longstanding imbalances and injuries -- largely because they're taken outside their comfort zone.

Here are a few of my favorite entry-level choices:

Single-leg squats to a bench (tap-and-go)

Dumbbell reverse lunges

Dumbbell step-ups

After mastering the initial exercises, challenge yourself with dumbbell step-ups on a higher platform. Reverse lunges can be done with a barbell. With an overhand grip crossing one hand on top of the other, hold the barbell in front of your neck and supported on your shoulders.

Incorporate some of these movements in your training and watch your performance improve as your injury risk drops off.

Eric Cressey is a strength and conditioning specialist at Excel Sport and Fitness Training in Boston, Mass. The author of The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual and over 150 published articles, Cressey also co-produced the Magnificent Mobility DVD and Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set. Cressey has worked with athletes from youth sports to the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels. Sign up for his free newsletter at www.EricCressey.com.

Discuss This Article

Cycling Tips, Training & Advice

4 Traditional Indoor

Cycling Workouts With a

Twist

It doesn't take long for indoor cycling workouts to get repetitive. Try these four variations to spice up your...

Within 2 Miles

Activities near you will have this indicator!

Within 2 Miles

ACTIVE.com is the leader in online event registrations from 5k running races and marathons to softball leagues and local events. ACTIVE also makes it easy to learn and prepare for all the things you love to do with expert resources, training plans and fitness calculators.

Frequently Asked Questions

ACTIVE Advantage is the premium membership program of ACTIVE, designed to support and encourage your active lifestyle by providing exclusive discounts on thousands of activities on ACTIVE. No matter what your passions are, it is our mission to make it cheaper and easier for you to pursue the activities you love.

The 30-day trial of the ACTIVE Advantage membership allows you to check out the program for yourself before starting a full annual membership. During this trial period you have full access to member benefits, including all ACTIVE registration discounts, access to free event entries, gear discounts and more. If you decide during the trial period that you don't want to continue the membership, just let us know. Otherwise, at the end of your 30 day trial we will extend your member benefits for a full year at the current annual membership fee.

If you sign up for the 30-day ACTIVE Advantage trial membership you'll receive full access to all member benefits during your trial period. When the 30 days of the trial are up, your benefits will automatically upgrade to the annual membership which currently costs $64.95 per year. That's less than $6 per month to enjoy the program all year round.

Members can receive discounts when registering for events on ACTIVE.com.

Simply follow the steps below to redeem your discount

Step 1: Find an event on ACTIVE and login. Use the ACTIVE directory to find an event. Click the login button in the upper right corner of the event details page. You will be re-directed to a login screen. After logging in, you will be sent back to the event details page.

Step 2: Click the "Register Now" button to sign up for the event. Complete all required registration fields and proceed to payment screen. When logged in as an Advantage member, your discount will automatically apply at the end of registration.

Step 3: Submit registration and receive discount. The discount amount will display in your shopping cart and will be deducted from your registration fees. The registration discount will vary and is excluded from some events. If the discount does not appear in your shopping cart, the event is not eligible.